What happened to Adrianne Curry? ‘America’s Next Top Model’ alum claims Tyra Banks' directed makeover resulted hair loss

Life has taken a quieter turn for Adrianne Curry, who once stood in front of flashing cameras as the first winner of America’s Next Top Model. In April, she spoke openly on TikTok and Instagram about her years away from fame, telling followers what it was like to live “as a has-been.”

“Do I get recognized living in remote Montana?” she asked in the clip.

“Well, either people come up to me and they are sure as s--- that we went to school with each other and they rattle off everyone they know and every school they've ever been to, and I'm too humiliated to say I used to be on TV because that just seems weird,” she added.

Adrianne Curry's humor carried through as she recounted other encounters.

“Or they'll come up to me and tell me, ‘You look just like that supermodel from TV, but I know you're not her, because why would she ever be here, right?’ I've even had someone tell me that I look ‘just like that model chick from TV, the really annoying one.’”

The model, who largely stepped back from Hollywood, recently found herself in the news again after alleging that a makeover on America’s Next Top Model had left her partially bald.

Life after Top Model: Adrianne Curry shares how a Tyra Banks makeover caused lasting harm

Adrianne Curry looked back on a painful experience she said stemmed from a makeover directed by Tyra Banks. In a video posted to Instagram, Adrianne Curry claimed the transformation left her “partially bald.” The model explained that the incident dated back to the filming of season one, which took place in late 2002 and early 2003.

“I wanted to discuss why I’m partially bald right here,”

She said, gesturing to the side of her head.

“The reason is, when I was on Top Model, Tyra Banks told them to put a weave in my hair. The black stylists that were putting it in pulled her aside, and I heard them tell her, like, ‘This white chick’s hair is too fragile for this,’ and she’s [Tyra’s], like, ‘Oh no, no, just do it.’”

Adrianne Curry alleged that the process left her scalp injured.

“I had an oozing wound from the braids. Half my hair had been ripped out here. The little bit of hair that grows here, that’s it, that’s all, like, it’s hardly anything,” she shared.

Once the show ended, Adrianne Curry said she sought help from a salon back home.

“When I got off the show, they didn’t even take the weave out so I had to go to a black salon in Illinois and I will never forget, because all the hair stylists came around, one chick was like, ‘Who the hell put this in your white head?’ I couldn’t say anything because I was under an NDA so it took hours and hours for them to get it out. I was left with… horrific moist scabs all over my head. They [the stylists] were so sweet … they just couldn’t believe that this was done to me,” she recalled.

The former reality star, who went on to appear on MTV’s The Surreal Life, said the damage never healed.

“It’s never grown, this entire area. It’s permanently damaged from that weave. It was so painful, I was crawling out of my skin every second. All my friends were like, ‘Are you bald there?’ I think most of those makeovers were done just to torture us, honestly,” she shared.

Adrianne Curry also questioned why the makeover was needed in the first place.

“On episode one, they cut my hair for the photo shoot and it looked really good … and then, they’re like, ‘You need a makeover.’ It was awful, it felt so validating to be in that salon with all the women who were just, like, ‘Who would do this to you?’ and I’m, like, her name is Tyra,” she shared.

Adrianne Curry opens up about trust issues and regrets after winning America’s Next Top Model:

Adrianne Curry first captured national attention when she won America’s Next Top Model in 2003. But more than two decades later, she described to People that her victory had come with a harsh reality check. She said she felt “betrayed and lied to by the show.”

"That's the industry. That is what it is. It is cutthroat. It is lying. It is predatory,[America's Next Top Model was] a polished jewel that prepared me for the awful truth that I couldn't trust anybody, even people that I thought I could, and even knowing that I still got screwed over," Curry explained.

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Looking back, Adrianne Curry added that the experience might have shaped her for the better.

"I'm grateful that things didn't pan out the way they were supposed to because I don't think I would be a very good person if I had found major success in modeling," she shared.

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